There aren’t too many athletes who would describe the fourth fastest performance in history as “disappointing”. But Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar is not your typical athlete.
After crushing a solid 3000m field by more than 11 seconds at tonight’s Sparkassen Cup in front of a raucous packed house, clocking 8:27.93 in the process, the 25-year-old Ethiopian sounded almost apologetic after her performance on the same track where she set the world record of 8:23.72 one year ago.
“I came here for the record,” she said, “and I’m a little disappointed. I’m in good shape, so I don’t know what happened. Maybe after the Boston race –it was very hard in Boston– I am a little bit tired.” A week ago at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, Defar chopped more than a dozen seconds from the previous world best over two miles, clocking 9:10.50.
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Brad Walker has been named USA Track & Field’s Athlete of the Week after winning the men’s pole vault at the 2007 World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.
The reigning World Indoor and Outdoor champion, Walker won the men’s pole vault with his clearance of 5.91 meters/19 feet 5.75 inches, topping the rest of the field by 5 cm. Walker, who owns the top two clearances in the world so far this year, equalled the #3 performance with his winning effort at Stuttgart.
Now in its sixth year, USATF’s Athlete of the Week program is designed to recognize outstanding performers at all levels of the sport. USATF names a new honoree each week and features the athlete on the USATF website. Selections are based on top performances and results from the previous week.
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Sanya Richards closed out her European season in style Sunday, winning the women’s 400 in the second and final day of competition at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.
Richards continued in her impressive string of world-leading wins in the women’s 400. Coming off world leaders in the last three Golden League meets, Richards dropped another WL on Sunday with her time of 49.27, tying her winning time from Berlin last Sunday. Novlene Williams of Jamaica was second in 50.12; American Mary Wineberg was seventh in 50.73.
World champion Brad Walker continued his excellence in the men’s pole vault. As the only person in the field to clear 5.91m/19-5.75, Walker topped the rest of the field by 5 cm. American Jeff Hartwig placed sixth in the field with 5.70m/18-8.25.
World Outdoor bronze medalist Carmelita Jeter posted her second big win of the season, taking the women’s 100 in 11.10, with Osaka 200m gold medalist Allyson Felix second in 11.15 and World Outdoor 100m silver medalist Lauryn Williams fifth in 11.31. Jeter also won the 100 in Berlin last Sunday.
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A slew of sensational performances, topped by Dayron Robles’ 12.92 victory in the 110m hurdles, highlighted a thoroughly entertaining second and final day of the 5th IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final in Stuttgart this afternoon.
Continuing his impressive late season campaign, the 20-year-old Cuban slashed the year-old meet record set by Liu Xiang, leaving thoughts of “what might have been” had the Chinese world record been here to defend his title. It was also a personal best and national record for Robles –he ran 13.00 here last year– in this his fifth victory in as many races since his disappointing fourth place showing at the World Championships in Osaka. Robles is now tied as the fourth fastest hurdler in history.
American David Payne, the Osaka bronze medallist, was second in 13.08, ahead of Osaka silver medallist Terrence Trammell (13.15).
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Meseret Defar produced an impressive front-running victory in the 3000 while Edwin Soi became the first man to capture the 300/5000m double to highlight the second and concluding day of the 5th IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final.
After a slew of world records and bests, her first world title and an undefeated season, Defar raced as though she wanted to get her 2007 campaign over as quickly as possible. And that’s precisely what the 23-year-old Ethiopian did with her captivating 8:27.24 gun-to-tape victory.
Taking control of the race from the gun, she upped the tempo throughout before covering the second half in just over 4:10 and the final kilometre in 2:45.22. But in Defar’s personal universe, the year’s second fastest performance wasn’t all that fast.
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Cuban Dayron Robles, 4th place finisher at Osaka, was rounding into peak form coming into the 5th IAAF World Athletics Final. Xiang Liu of China was not in the race, but Terrence Trammell, Osaka silver medalist and David Payne, Osaka bronze medalist, were in Stuttgart.
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The women’s 5000m was to be one of the highlights of the 5th IAAF World Athletics Final. Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar, the world record holder (14:16.63), was in the race, as was Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot. Defar had an audacious sprint at the gun, opening up a 10m lead after just 200m. She then settled down, allowing Cheruiyot to catch up.
Defar passed the 1000m mark in 2:51.49, a whopping 6.5 seconds faster than the 1st 1000m of the men’s 5000m race earlier.
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Wallace Spearmon was the clear favorite going into the men’s 200m of the 5th IAAF World Athletics Final from Stuttgart, Germany. With a bronze medal from the Osaka world championships to his credit nd a couple of fast recent times of 19.88 (Brussels) and 19.82 (Berlin), the race was his for the taking, especially since gold medalist Tyson Gay and silver medalist Usain Bolt were not in the race. Rodney Martin, 4th in Osaka, was in the race, too.
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Carmelita Jeter, bronze medalist at Osaka, wasn’t going to have to worry about gold medalist Veronica Campbell (JAM), Campbell deciding to have ended her season. Silver medalist Lauryn Williams was still in the race, though, as was 200m world champion Allyson Felix.
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With many of the same actors, the men’s 5000m of the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany seemed like a sequel to the 3000m run that was held the previous day. Edwin Cheruiyot Soi (KEN) the winner of the 7.5 lap race (winning time: 7:49.70), was also in the 12.5 lapper, as were Joseph Ebuya (KEN), Mohammed Farah (GBR), Craig Mottram (AUS), Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa (KEN) and Eliud Kipchoge (KEN). They must have been tired from the previous day’s race, because they ran the first 1000m in 2:57.99, a pedestrian 4:46 per mile pace, with Kenya’s Shadrack Kosgei taking the early pacing duties.
Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine then stepped up the pace a notch, going through 2000m in 5:46.66 (1000m split: 2:48.67, per-mile pace: 4:31). It was at least becoming a respectable race.
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Sanya Richards and Yelena Isinbayeva each won a $500,000 share of the IAAF Golden League Jackpot after their respective victories at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin today, the final meet of the six-meet Golden League series.
In front of a near-capacity crowd of 70,000 –the third consecutive announced Golden League sell-out – Richards yet again crushed […]
Following their victories in Paris on Friday night, four athletes remained alive in the chase for the $1 million IAAF Golden League Jackpot.
Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia, Americans Sanya Richards (400m) and Michelle Perry (100m hurdles) and javelin thrower Tero Pitkamaki of Finland are still in the hunt for a share of the $1 […]
The IAAF announced today that the Reebok Grand Prix, scheduled for Saturday, June 2, at Ichan Stadium in New York City, had been upgrated to IAAF Grand Prix status and is now part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour.
The Reebok meeting joins the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., on June 10, as the only other […]
Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar has done it again; setting a new 3,000m indoor world record (8:23:72) at yesterday’s Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart, Germany.
After falling short of her personal expectations last weekend, Defar emerged victorious in Stuttgart; breaking the previous record that was set last year by more than four seconds.
The race was very competitive as […]
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